Golden Corral 500 - Ken Schrader Notes

Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: Golden Corral 500
Schrader Makes 600th Career Start Sunday

Ken Schrader and the #49 Schwan’s Home Service Dodge head to the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway this week for Sunday’s Golden Corral 500.

Sunday’s race will be the 600th NASCAR Cup start of Schrader’s career.

Driver of the Schwan’s Home Service Dodge, 48-year-old Schrader, is a native of Fenton, Mo., and the busiest driver in major league motorsports, Schrader has raced on virtually every type of speedway in virtually every type of race car, and continues a winning career that has seen him win over $20 million.

The team is owned by Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau, investors from Coral Gables, Fla. Ms. Morgenthau, whose initials make up the name of the team – BAM Racing – is the only female car owner in motorsports to become involved without prior family connections. General manager Eddie Jones is a veteran of the NASCAR Winston Cup wars, enjoying a championship career as a crew chief, mechanic and team leader. Crew chief Scott Eggleston is one of the few active crew chiefs in the business to have won a Daytona 500. Business manager Gus Larkin is a successful veteran motorsports marketer, and leads the corporate sponsorship activities.

The Schwan Food Company is a privately held manufacturer and marketer of fine frozen foods through its nationwide Schwan’s Home Service home-delivery service, its Schwan’s Consumer Brands North America retail grocery business, and its Schwan’s Food Service Group foodservice unit. Headquartered in Marshall, Minn., Schwan’s production and distribution activities in the United States and Europe employ 24,000 people. Among its well-known brands are Schwan’s®, Tony’s®, Red Baron®, Freschetta®, Pagoda®, Mrs. Smith’s®, and Edwards®.

The thoughts of Schwan’s Home Service Dodge driver Ken Schrader heading into Atlanta:

“If you were to catch me at a certain time, I might tell you that Atlanta is just another race at another track. But, that wouldn’t be entirely true. Atlanta will always be special to me and I suppose after Sunday it will carry a bit more meaning. Historically the Atlanta Motor Speedway has always been a place where we run well. We’ve won there before so, of course I’ll always remember it for that. But, when they give the command to fire the engines on Sunday that will be start Number 600 for my Cup career.

“Occasionally you reach a number, which is really all it is, that someone will label a milestone and then they’ll ask you to reflect back. When we started out racing in Cup over 20 years ago, I never thought about start number 600. Shoot ,I was just worried if I would get start number two!

“Honestly, I just feel fortunate that I have been able to race for this long at this level. Someone told me that I’ll be the 16th driver in Cup history to reach 600 starts… not everyone has had that opportunity, so I guess it’s pretty neat to know I’ll be one of the few who were fortunate enough to get to 600.

“As for the track itself, it’s one of the best tracks for racing on the circuit. Since we run plates at Daytona and Talladega, Atlanta is now the fastest… and it feels as fast as it is. You can run wide open and no matter what tire composition we’ve ever brought to Atlanta, fresh tires will always blow away old tires. That’s something that makes Atlanta so racy. It’s fun for the fans and the drivers . . . well, fun for the drivers as long as your car is fast.

“At the end of the race it’s generally the guy in the lead on older tires trying to hold off the second place guy on fresher tires. That normally makes for exciting finishes and it seems Atlanta never disappoints.

“We’re going to continue to improve on these mile and a half tracks like Atlanta. This Schwan’s Home Service Dodge team is really working hard to improve each and every week. We’ll go to Atlanta and give it everything we have and hopefully our 600th Cup race will be one to remember.”